


Shortest Tour Ever

by maroongrad



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Movies - Raimi)
Genre: Field Trip, Gen, Interns & Internships, Peter Parker's Field Trip to Stark Industries, Stark Industries, Stark Tower
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:47:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25902292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maroongrad/pseuds/maroongrad
Summary: Random snippet. What happens when Peter just isn't in the mood to put up with any attitude on a field trip? Set during COVID in Spring 2020, Peter Parker's Senior Year.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 595





	Shortest Tour Ever

**Author's Note:**

> No Beta, no proofreading, just a random snippet that ended up being twice as long as it probably should be, but I had fun writing it!

When the juniors had picked their end-of-3rd quarter field trips, Peter did NOT select "Stark Industries". He'd opted for the Hudson River Museum as first choice (he'd only gotten to go there once back in elementary school and had loved the planetarium), the Intrepid Museum (a chance to get a first-land look at the machinery and tech inside an aircraft carrier was not to be passed up!), and, just for something different and a bit outside his normal fields of interest, the Lower East Side Ecology Center.

With COVID looming as a threat, the trips had been spread out across two days. The school had crunched numbers, and to get enough buses and small enough groups without having to hire additional substitutes, the usual format had changed. It was now a two-day process. Half the students would go on each day, and the remaining day they'd complete their work virtually. This was the week before Spring Break and the general gossip was that they'd not be coming back after Spring Break, not with the way that COVID was spreading!

Peter got picked for the first day and for the Lower East Side Ecology Center. It was fascinating, seeing the estuary and the mixing of saline and fresh water. The section talking about restoring and cleaning areas caught his attention and for the rest of the tour, his mind was putting together technological solutions for some of the problems. A batch of small solar-powered "fish"? They'd dive down, be set to locate glass, plastic, or metals with their sensors, retrieve a piece and return it to the large net "home" they originated from. Recharge for a couple hours in the sunlight, dive down, and get another piece. For larger pieces, maybe some of them could attach wires to pull it up? How could the wires stick? Web fluid would dry underwater just fine, could that be used? Would the algae coating the substances prevent attachment?

It was a fantastic trip, and he left it brimming with new ideas and suggestions. Then next day, he pulled up his virtual lessons...and was done before 10 and down in the labs with Dr. Stark.

Peter had been spotted a few times too many with a torn suit, a single functional webshooter, running out of webbing during a fight, having the shooters clogging and an unpleasant tumble until the other webshooter could be fired, and more. One memorable occasion had seen him leaping from rooftop to rooftop to the sides of buildings as he made his way to Stark Towers sans any webfluid at all.  
Stark had thrown up his hands, declared "I am NOT dealing with this. Here. Lab. You. You are not going on patrol until you have better shooters, backup shooters, and plenty of fluid." 

In order to give Peter consistent access to the labs and supplies, he'd become the first-ever HS intern. His official project? "Applications of high-speed extrusion of high-tensile polymers". What that meant? "Peter, your webs have a lot of potential. Figure out another use for them. Design a webshooter that would fulfill that purpose; maybe a large cannon for construction, or a nearly-nano one for surgery sutures. Find a purpose, design the equipment, test the application. And while you're at it, you better have backup webshooters and more webbing than you know what to do with." Peter had even managed to make a few webbing stashes on various rooftops. 

Right now, he was working on using webbing as an evacuation tool for burning buildings. The idea was to use it like a zipline. It could be anchored anywhere, such as to another building, and it was fire-resistant. It would eventually melt but could handle temperatures over 200C before that happened. At this point, Peter was checking different solvents to keep it from burning at lower temperatures. It currently ignited about 236C.

And then Friday spoke. "Boss, we have a problem. We've got a tour group in the lobby waiting on a guide, and we have no guides. They are all working from home at this point. The ones that are present are on rotating time schedules, and we have no qualified tour guides available for another two hours."

"Peeeeeeter..."  
"Mr. Stark, no."  
"It would be good experience working on presentation skills."  
"I am trying to find a high-temp solvent for the web fluid, Mr. Stark!"  
"And, as your mentor, it is my reponsibility to help you develop relevant skills. Public speaking is definitely a skill."  
"I'm not trained to do this!"  
"And? Take them to a few low-clearance labs, show them the cafeteria, stop by HR and see Mrs. Satchins in the afternoon to talk to them about what makes a Stark employee special, finish up with a QA with a department head. Go down and get them through security and go over the ground rules for safety, and I'll get the labs selected and give you a time frame for Satchins and a department head."  
"..."  
"Pete, there's even a pamphlet at the front desk for tour group guidelines. Go pick up a stack, hand 'em out to the tour group, go over them, and by then I'll have your schedule finalized."

With a put-upon sigh, Peter put up the micropipets, covered the balance, and tightened lids on the chemicals. He was then hit in the back of the head by a Stark hoodie. 

"While I enjoy the science puns, you need a little more professional attire for the tour. This at least has our name on it!" Peter slipped it on and headed down to the lobby. "Don't forget your mask!" and a N95 mask smacked the back of his head as soon as he turned. He wished his spidey sense was a little more help but, well, a mask wasn't dangerous. He'd unwrapped it and slipped it on as he stepped out. The air circulation and filtering in the building was top-notch and was even better since it was upgraded to handle COVID earlier in the month, but even so, a mask was needed. At least Stark hadn't tossed him one of the flaming red and gold Iron Man ones; this was a plain navy with a white "Stark" printed on the side. 

He could hear the tour group as he stepped out of the private elevator and walked unobtrusively towards the front desk. Dave and Miranda were working there today, and had apparently been given a heads-up by Friday because Dave was standing up and handing over a pamphlet as soon as he saw Peter. 

"I handed them packets and told them to review them before the tour guide arrived. They've had several minutes, so should be ready to go." Dave explained. Even easier...he didn't have to do even that bit! 

Flipping through it, Peter was pleased to see it was all basic stuff he'd long since learned. Some of it was basic, "don't touch" stuff. Others focused on professionalism; no food or drinks were to be consumed on any lab floor or in any place not approved for them, closed-toed shoes were required, behavior that interfered with the employees' work was prohibited (this was put there after a handful of visiting investors had consumed some drinks during lunch, gone on the tour, and had been grabbing random employees for selfies without asking as well as constantly interupting the tour guide!). 

With a quick wave at Miranda and Dave, he headed towards the waiting area beside the lobby. Stepping in, he did a double-take...because there was the AP Physics teacher Mrs. Sanders, and Mr. Harrington, and...wow. He recognized several of the faces and knew Abe and Flash and Rachel from class. He probably knew more, honestly, but with the masks on it was hard to tell! 

Half of him wanted to vanish. The other half pointed out that if he didn't do this, it was highly unlikely they'd ever get a chance to see Stark Tower again. And Abe deserved the chance, at the very least. That half won, and with more than a bit of trepidation Peter walked towards his class.

Harrington was the first to spot him. "Peter? Peter, you aren't on the list for this tour. Didn't you have yours yesterday?" Harrington was caught between puzzled and irritated, but a glance at Sanders showed her going from irritated to angry pretty quickly. His brain threw up a velocity formula in his mind for a delta mood over time with a change in facts. It helped a little.

"Um, you don't have a tour guide. We've had to change things around, and realized this morning that you had no guide and we didn't have a backup. So, since I was already here on my internship, I was asked to do the tour. Have you all had a chance to go through the rules and guidelines for tours?"

"Of course we have, we've been waiting nearly a half hour." Friday helpfully popped up a timer on his watch, buzzing it to alert him...and he looked to see it at 14:32 and :33 and on up.... Yeah, that was no half hour.

The rest of the class had noticed him by then. "Hey Penis, 'sup? Aren't you supposed to be at home instead of crashing a field trip?" smirked Flash. 

"In case you hadn't noticed," Peter said drily, indicating the STARK emblazoned on his hoodie, "I am not on the field trip, I am GIVING the field trip."

Sanders stepped forward. "You may not have been able to get into AP Physics but that doesn't mean I haven't heard about you from my other students. I was told you were claiming to be an intern at Stark Industries and causing problems, but this is taking it too far, young man!" 

Flash and the crony that had followed him were now laughing at him. A glance at Harrison showed that he wasn't going to do a thing and just looked embarrassed. Peter took a few minutes to look over the class, and reached a decision.

"Fri? You've been recording this, right?"

"Of course, Peter."

"I need you to scan through the faces and identify them, pick out the ones that were causing problems, looked amused at the situation, or were otherwise contributing to an attempt to shame and embarrass me. I also want you to pick out the ones like Abe. If you have trouble using algorithms to determine emotions, check with Potts and PR. Send the list to my watch when you're finished, please."

That would take the world's best AI a matter of seconds usually. But with the masks on, it may take a human eye to determine if the body language and such was indicative of problems.

"May I suggest including the footage from when they entered the lobby? Some remarks were exchanged well before your arrival."

"Yes please! Thanks, Fri!"

And then Peter turned to the tour group, some of which were watching in open-mouth shocked, others with disbelief, and a few with despair. Those would be the ones who had actually read the pamphlet and accepted that he was an employee, and knew what was coming.

"You said you had read the guidelines. The guidelines clearly state that you are not allowed to interfere with a Stark employee performing their duties during your tours. Claiming that I am faking the internship and not an actual tour guide not only prevents me from beginning the tour but also decreases the effectiveness of my job. Students who don't think I am an actual tour guide are not going to listen to my directions.

In addition, I am here voluntarily and left the work I was doing for my internship project to come and lead a tour group that would otherwise have been unable to take a tour."

Peter paused a moment, looking at the faces of the students and teachers. Most looked surprised that he'd spoken up to defend himself and chastise the teachers, a few had figured out what was going on and looked crushed, and Sanders? She looked about to erupt. Before she could, Peter continued.

"As you have prevented me from giving the tour and there are no other guides available, this tour is canceled. Should you appeal to the PR department that arranged this tour and convince them that it should not be canceled, you would still be left with no tour guide because I will not volunteer again when my services are not appreciated or respeted. Have a nice trip back to the school. Anyone identified by Friday as a victim instead of part of the problem may, MAY, be invited back at a future date."

Friday's voice echoed down, lacking the warmth of her normal conversations.

"Midtown School of Science and Technology is now on the banned list. Please verify any exceptions with Dr. Stark before making any offers to allow any Midtown students or staff on Stark properties."

Ignoring the shouts of Sanders to "Get back here right now young man while we figure this out!" and Harrington's "Please reconsider!" as well as a handful of students now shouting at Flash (one of them was threatening a lawsuit), Peter strolled back to the elevator. The closing of the door cut of their complaints and he'd seen several security officers moving towards them from the corner of his eye.   
He just couldn't feel any guilt. He'd been ready to give them a tour, after all. It wasn't his fault their bad behavior and disruptions had made it impossible to give an at-all effective one. His time was better used in research. 

That's exactly what he told Tony as soon as he was back in, backed up immediately by Friday. He set a screen to show the lobby and watched the screen as he worked until he saw the big yellow buses pull up to load up the students.

\---

Turns out there were seven students who'd been listening to him and being respectful out of the nearly two-dozen that had been present. He had a great time later that week, giving them a REAL tour of Stark Industries Research Division and even letting them shoot his webcannon a few times. Abe was innvited to stay after to do some AcaDec practice once he got over his awe, and joined Peter, Ned, and MJ in his corner of the intern lab to review notes. The best part was having Friday participate; she served as a "buzzer" for them by just watching their hands and seeing who moved first, and could look up any answer they missed and provide additional information. 

It may have been the shortest tour in the history of Stark Industries, but he couldn't complain about the end result. Flash was fairly ostracized as word of the school ban for SI spread, Sanders took a leave of absence for the rest of the school year, and Peter did get to practice his presentation skills, after all. As part of his apology, Harrington had asked Peter to give a demo to the entire junior class of his research project (what wasn't confidential, that is!) and he'd spent an enjoyable half-hour watching students spray a quickly-degrading web solution all over the bleachers. They were well spread out and outdoors (thanks, COVID), so the wind did blow some if it over onto the teachers. Watching them try and pick it off their clothes was just bonus! He'd TOLD them it would dissolve in a few minutes...


End file.
